The funeral for the Upper West Side soap opera actor who committed suicide after euthanizing his beloved pet dog took place on Monday. Nick Santino committed suicide last week the day after his 47th birthday, and the NY Post alleged that in his suicide note he said it was because he was wracked with guilt and grief over euthanizing his pit bull Rocco, following harassment and pressure from his condo board. Outside his funeral at St. Athanasius Church in Brooklyn, Santino's friend Sara Schwartz told the Post that she believes the death of Rocco was the tipping point for Santino: “It’s more than the dog. I definitely think the dog thing was the last straw. It gave him a reason to do it. If that didn’t happen, he may have lived a long life...He wanted to be in heaven with the dog.”
According to close friend Stuart Sarnoff, Santino wrote in the suicide note: "Today I betrayed my best friend and put down my best friend...Rocco trusted me and I failed him. He didn't deserve this." Santino, whose TV credits include “All My Children” and “Guiding Light” (you can see his demo reel here), had been feeling "harassed" by his building management company, according to various neighbors and friends. The building had announced strict new dog regulations in 2010, including a ban on pit bulls like Rocco. Although Rocco was grandfathered in, that allegedly didn't stop him from being harassed. “People were complaining about his dog,” said neighbor Kevan Cleary. “It was open season on him.”
Marilyn Fireman, a board member at his building at 1 Lincoln Plaza, responded to the allegations over the weekend, and vehemently denied that the condo board had any responsibility for Santino's death: “I’m sorry the man is dead, but it has nothing to do with the pet policy. You just assumed that [his suicide] was a result of a board’s decision.”
A question that has been lingering over the story is why Santino chose to euthanize Rocco, who was said to be a "healthy, 5-year-old dog." He had allegedly tried to get at least one friend, Sandra Tarr, to take the dog from him as the building harassment continued: "Why didn’t I just take Rocco when you called me back in November...Why, why, why. ?????????????” she wrote on his Facebook wall after his death.
Brooklyn veterinarian Eric Bregman told the Post that it wasn't uncommon for owners to ask vets to put down healthy dogs—sometimes because they have to move, sometimes because of tough economic times—but most never would: “We do not put healthy pets to sleep,” said Bregman, a past president of the New York State Veterinary Medical Society. “There is not a veterinarian around who has not been asked to [put down a healthy pet].”
